'IT HAPPENED': DRIVER'S MOM SAYS CRASH WAS 'GOD'S WILL'

Gwenevere Cook insists that her son was not speeding and urged people to not judge him

The mother of the bus driver charged with vehicular homicide in five children's deaths insists her son was not at fault and that the crash was 'God's will.'

Police say Johnthony Walker, 24, was going well above the posted 30mph speed limit when he crashed a bus carrying 35 schoolchildren in Chattanooga on Monday.

His mother Gwenevere Cook insists that her son was not speeding and urged people to not judge him.

'My heart of love is going out to all that were in harm’s way in this horrible accident of God’s will,' she told NBC News.

'I pray we all can just get this some way without judging my son. It happened. God don’t make mistakes. We do.'

Cook, who is in Atlanta, says her son is a responsible father to a three-year-old boy and has been working two jobs for the past two years.

She said he began driving the school bus for Durham School Services in August - and called her in the immediate aftermath of Monday's deadly crash.

'He said "Mama, I love you. I've been in a domestic wreck on the bus",' she recalled.

'He was trying to get the children off the bus. He found blood everywhere.'

In an interview with CNN, Cook said: 'He's never been in trouble before. He is a respected young man, grew up in Chattanooga and is liked by everyone.'

Mateen said she called the Board of Education and Woodmore Elementary School. She said she even wrote letters to the school and to Walker.

'Y'all doing what y'all supposed to be doing but my baby laying in a cold freezer,' Mateen said as she broke down into tears.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mateen said that the last words Walker said to the children before he sped around a curb and crashed the bus, were reportedly: 'Are y'all ready to die?'

'My daughter said, right before the bus flipped, that he was speeding around the curb, and asked them, 'are y'all ready to die?'' Mateen told CBS News Radio.

But Hamilton County School District spokeswoman Amy Kutcher declined to say whether the district had received any complaints involving Walker, who was employed by an outside bus contractor, Durham School Services.

Walker was driving well above the 30mph speed limit when the bus carrying 35 Woodmore Elementary students flipped onto its side and wrapped around a tree

The school bus is seen being carried away from the site where it crashed on Monday afternoon

People hug as donations are dropped off at Woodmore Elementary School on Tuesday

Flowers, signs and stuffed animals make up a makeshift memorial outside Woodmore Elementary School in Chattanooga

She referred all questions about his performance and that of other Durham drivers to the company.

'Legally, there is no way that we could discipline someone who is not our employee,' Kutcher said.

'We've got 192 Durham bus drivers. Obviously, this is a bad one.'

Durham CEO David A. Duke issued a statement on Twitter saying the company was 'devastated' by the accident and working with police and school officials to investigate.

Company officials did not return calls and emails seeking comment.

Based in Warrenville, Illinois, Durham operates about 13,700 vehicles across the U.S. and has nearly as many drivers, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

It had a 'satisfactory' safety rating from the agency in July 2015.

The school bus was towed away from the scene of the crash in Chattanooga on Tuesday

The driver was going well above the 30mph speed limit when the bus carrying students flipped onto its side and wrapped around a tree, according to an arrest affidavit

The arrest affidavit says the bus was going at high speed when it left the narrow, winding road and eventually struck a tree

A woman is seen escorting three children who were on the bus at the time of the crash. The children all had cuts, bruises and scratches on them as they were taken away from the scene

The company has had 346 crashes over two years, including three resulting in deaths and 142 with injuries, federal figures show.

During that period, it had 53 incidents involving unsafe driving violations.

And as the NTSB investigation got underway, chairman Christopher Hart said the agency will look at such factors as the driver's actions, the condition of the bus and whether seat belts — something the NTSB has been pushing for — would have made a difference.

Craig Harris, a parent of two children who had been on the bus, told ABC's 'Good Morning America' that the bus driver sometimes drove too fast.

'There has been times where I've seen him going a little faster than he probably should be going,' Harris said.

But Walker's mother Gwenevere Cook says the accident was 'God's will' and not her son's fault.

'My heart of love is going out to all that were in harm’s way in this horrible accident of God’s will,' she told NBC News.

'I pray we all can just get this some way without judging my son. It happened. God don’t make mistakes. We do.'

She says her son is a responsible father and called her immediately after the fatal crash to tell her what happened as he helped rescue the children from the wreck.

Students from kindergarten through fifth grade were on board when the bus flipped onto its side and wrapped around a tree at 313 Talley Road at around 3.20pm

'Mama, I love you. I have been in a drastic accident,' Cook told CNN she recalled her son saying.

'He texted me minutes later saying the kids are dead. He was trying to get [the children] off the bus - all the bodies were limp.'

She also revealed that Walker, who has a three-year-old son, had been working two jobs for the past two years.

'He's never been in trouble before. He is a respected young man, grew up in Chattanooga and is liked by everyone,' she said.

Thirty-five children had been riding on a bus police said was traveling too fast Monday afternoon when it veered off a narrow, winding road and crashed into a tree on the way home from elementary school.

Authorities haven't released the names of the dead or injured.

But family members confirmed that Zyanna Harris, 10, Cordayja Jones, a girl called Zoey and six-year-old D'Myunn Brown died along with Mateen's daughter.

Doctors said that the injured children were so young that many couldn't spell their names.

A neighbor living on Talley Road near the crash said that the children were escaping from the roof hatch of the bus. Above, two children are pictured on the ground in front of a home with authorities and first-responders

Parents received text message notifying them of the crash. The message said that 'extra counselors and support staff' would be coming in from all over the state to help students process the tragedy

Some couldn't remember their birthdays or their parents' names — just 'Momma' when asked.

As survivors of the crash began to arrive in the pediatric emergency room, Dr. Darvey Koller said he could see the devastation in their eyes.

'Many of them were scared or too dazed to talk to us,' Koller said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The process of identifying the injured moved slowly, Koller said, and Children's Hospital at Erlanger staff resorted to photographing each child for teachers to identify.

Reeling from the tragedy, Chattanoogans lined up to donate blood and created a memorial of flowers and stuffed toys at the crash scene.

Emergency responders needed almost two hours to get all the children off the bus

The students on board ranged from kindergarten through fifth grade. Above, emergency personnel are pictured working the scene of the crash

'The most unnatural thing in the world is for a parent to mourn the loss of a child,' Mayor Andy Berke said.

'There are no words that can bring comfort to a mother or a father. So today, the city is praying for these families.'

At an evening prayer vigil, a local church overflowed and gospel choir boomed out songs. Preachers spoke of grief, strength and faith.

Children the same age as those who died got antsy in the capacity-filled lobby. Reality intruded, though, as an usher walked a tearful woman through the crowd.

'This woman needs a seat,' he said. 'She lost her daughter.'

Parents used to sending their children off to school every day without incident struggled to cope with the news.

'It's real tough,' said Dujuan Butchee, whose daughters, Jamya and Janesa, are eighth-graders who used to go to the same school as the youngsters killed in the wreck.

'It's tough on my kids because they know some of the victims as well.'

Butchee said it wasn't the first time he had heard about a bus speeding.

'I think it should wake up more bus drivers to be more cautious because you're dealing with a lot of kids' lives,' Butchee said.

Blood Assurance released a statement calling for the community to donate blood, above, residents in the area are pictured standing in line to donate blood

Emergency personnel work the scene of a fatal elementary school bus crash in Chattanooga